Tuesday 15 March 2011

Living room upgrades

Chris and I are tackling our first home renovation project this spring, we'll be completely redoing our main bathroom. We have two full baths in our house, one on the second floor and one in the basement laundry room. The basement laundry room bath has been completely taken over by TFA, it's where we do all the dyeing, glamorous right? Because of that, and the fact that we don't have a main floor powder room, the upstairs bathroom is really the only bathroom that we, or our guests, ever use and unfortunately right now, it's pretty terrible! The problem is not only esthetics (though it is ugly) but also functionality. It is small an just very poorly laid out. Anyways, we've done lots of homework and are ready to get the ball rolling (or get the sledge hammer swinging!) On one of our homework days we took a trip downtown to source tiles, on our way we were passing a great vintage furniture store that specializes in mid-century modern furniture, so we decided to pop in and take a peak around. We left with the most perfect chair in the world!

Best chair ever! So happy.

I love this chair. It is just stunning. We wanted a chair that coordinated with our large sectional sofa, but wasn't too matchy-matchy. We wanted a chair that didn't take up too much space since we don't have that much space to spare. And we really love the Scandinavian, mid-century modern style. I really love buying vintage for several reasons, first, because I find that it adds a lot of soul, personality and uniqueness to a space. And second, because in my experience, good quality vintage furniture is often much better quality than new production. I'm really on a vintage quality kick right now because I purchased an expensive new hip office chair less then a year and a half ago and it's already coming apart, very disappointing. 

So, there's our new chair, so much goodness, so much to love! It's very comfortable, it looks great from every angle, and the warm wood tone paired with the beige/grey upholstery is a match made in heaven. Love.

best chair ever!

I don't know why I started this post off by talking all about my bathroom reno since it's really all about my living room right now... 

I, like many, fell off the wagon and immediately purchased the Liberty of London mini rainbow bundle from Purl Soho. They make it so easy! I showed restraint and bought the small, $50 stack rather then the stunningly gorgeous, covetable and pricey colour-wheel kit. I bought it thinking that I would make a beautiful little quilt, but when I got it in the mail, knowing that I wouldn't be making a quilt any time soon and thinking that the fabrics were far too beautiful to hide away in my stash until I got around to them, I decided that it was time to switch up my circle wall art. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner! After all, the Purls Liberty of London swatch portraits are what inspired my blue wall art in the first place. I loved the blues, but I was ready for a change. These fabrics really add a nice dose of warmth and charm to the space. When I was removing all of the blue swatches from the rings I discovered that they were still as good as new. I didn't cut the fabric, I just put them in the embroidery hoops and ironed them towards the back, so all the extra fabric was hidden, but I didn't waste any. I did the same with the Liberty of London fabrics, I wouldn't dare cut them up! And now I know that when I am ready to make a quilt out of these, I'll just take them out of their hoops, wash and iron them and they'll be as good as new!

New Liberty of London circle wall art

I should have taken an "after" shot, but I didn't, the house isn't quite as tidy today, I've got a stack of boxes ready to go to the post office cluttering up the staircase. This is what the living room looked like before with the blue circles and the rocking chair. Picture it with Liberty of London circles and the perfect chair instead. 

Living room before